Numerical simulation of rock electrical properties based on digital cores

In this paper, we obtained three dimensional digital cores using X-ray CT to describe the rock microstructure and applied the open morphology algorithm to simulate oil and formation water distribution in the pore space at different water saturations during the oil-displacing water flood process. The resistivity, formation factor, and resistivity index of rocks were calculated using the finite element method (FEM) and we studied the effect of rock wettability on electrical properties. The numerical simulation results indicate that the simulated formation factor and resistivity index of the water wet rock agrees well with experiments over the whole range of water saturation and extends the traditional resistivity experiment. The rock wettablilty has a large influence on the rock resistivity index. The resistivity and saturation exponent of oil wet rock are obviously larger than three of water wet rock.